Systems and methods for sorting recyclables at a material recovery facility
View Patent ↗Systems and methods for providing a quantity of cullet having at least two colors of glass from an input stream of recyclable material and non-recyclable material. In an embodiment, the system includes a sortation station, a screening apparatus, an air classifier, and a crushing apparatus to provide as output substantially pure cullet having at least two colors.
1. A system for providing a quantity of cullet having at least two colors of glass from an input stream of recyclable material and non-recyclable material having at least two colors of glass, comprising:
a first sortation station for receiving the input stream, and removing from the input stream at least a portion of the non-recyclable material;
a first screening apparatus for substantially removing corrugated fiber products from the input stream;
a second screening apparatus for substantially removing newspaper from the input stream;
an air classifier for receiving glass from the input stream, and extracting at least one of plastic, aluminum and paper elements from the input stream;
a third screening apparatus that receives non-glass items and residual glass from said second screening apparatus, and substantially removes paper items from the non-glass items;
a second sortation station that receives an output from said third screening apparatus, and directs glass items to a crushing apparatus, and said plastic items to a repository;
a crushing apparatus that receives the glass from said air classifier and second sortation station, and breaks substantially all of the glass into pieces having a largest dimension equal to or less than a predetermined length; and
a fourth screening apparatus for receiving the crushed glass and removing additional non-glass contaminants, thereby providing as output the cullet comprising at least two colors.
2. The system according to claim 1 , wherein the first screening apparatus comprises a disc screen.
3. The system according to claim 1 , wherein the second screening apparatus comprises a dual screen separator having an upper screen deck and a lower screen deck.
4. The system according to claim 1 , wherein the received non-glass items comprise at least one of: a) plastic items, b) ferrous items, c) non-ferrous items, and d) paper items.
5. The system according to claim 1 , further comprising a ferrous separator that receives the ferrous items and the non-ferrous items from said second sortation station, and directs the ferrous items to a repository.
6. The system according to claim 5 , further comprising a non-ferrous separator that receives said non-ferrous items from said ferrous separator, and directs said non-ferrous items to a repository.
7. The system according to claim 6 , wherein any residual glass provided as output from said non-ferrous separator is provided as input to said crushing apparatus.
8. The system according to claim 1 , wherein the second sortation station comprises at least one manual sorter.
9. The system according to claim 1 , wherein the first sortation station comprises at least one manual sorter.
10. The system according to claim 1 , wherein the non-recyclable material removed at the first sortation station comprises at least one of milk cartons, light bulbs, and styrofoam.
11. The system according to claim 1 , wherein the largest dimension is approximately three inches.
12. The system according to claim 1 , wherein the largest dimension is approximately two and one-half inches.
13. The system according to claim 1 , wherein the at least two colors of cullet comprise one of: a) flint and amber, b) flint and green, b) amber and green, and d) flint, amber and green.
14. The system according to claim 1 , further comprising a ceramic detector and remover that receives the cullet from said first screening apparatus, and removes at least a portion of any ceramic from the input.